Credit cards, debit cards, and gift cards are often used to tender payment for desired products or services at stores, restaurants, online businesses, etc. Some drawbacks to using credit cards, debit cards, and gifts cards is that they can be stolen or lost, and then can be used by unauthorized users to access the card owner's account to charge the account to pay for products or services or obtain cash from the card owner's account (e.g., bank account, credit account), and replacement of a lost or stolen card can take a significant amount of time. Further, credit, debit, and gift card numbers can be stolen by others (e.g., persons watching the card owner use the card, store clerks who work at the business at which the card was presented, persons using theft devices to illegally obtain card information, etc.). Furthermore, with gift cards, there can be less accountability, as the card owner may not be able to be credited for unauthorized use of the gift card and/or more proof may be required from the gift card owner to demonstrate that the gift card owner owned the gift card, the monetary value of the gift card, etc.
On the other hand, many people today have portable communication devices (e.g., mobile phones, laptop computers, electronic notepads, electronic netbooks, etc.), which can quickly analyze and process data, can store large amounts of data, and can be used for a variety of different applications, including applications relating to finances. Further, persons can use such portable communication devices to securely connect with communication devices of financial institutions and other trusted entities to access financial account information or other information.
It is desirable for holders of financial accounts (e.g., credit card holder having a credit card account, debit card holder associated with a bank account, gift card holder associated with a gift account) to be able to securely make purchases at local businesses and online businesses. Further, it is desirable to reduce the burden of card holders to have to carry their cards.